High quality vinegar like Aceto Balsamico di Modena is recommended.
Be careful with salt. The above suggestion about 2 spoonfuls concerns British fine salt. Other salts may be stronger. Greek salt, in particular, may be twice as strong and only one spoonful may be enough.
Makes about 6 servings. It's quite heavy (due to the onions) and should be eaten for lunch only, on non-working days, with red wine. You'll have a most wonderful nap after lunch.
Peel and wash the onions.
This is a boring job to do in the morning, so you might want to do it the previous evening and leave the peeled onions in water until the next day.
Cut meat in pieces about the size of an egg, wash, and put in the pan. Add garlic (the whole cloves peeled), onions, olive oil, vinegar, bay leaves, tomato puree dissolved in a cup of water (preferably hot), salt and pepper.
Add water. If A is the level the liquid should have in order to cover all ingredients, I suggest you try A/2, or a bit more. Put to boil. When it starts to boil reduce heat, cover and let boil for 3 hours. Don't even think of stirring it.
The onions will soon become very soft, and you can't stir because they will dissolve (but should the need arise, you can shake the pan). The onions will also release water, and at the same time they will be a bit compressed by their own weight. As a result, the level of liquid will rise. In addition, as the thing boils under cover, the boiling water will rise even more, as it does when you boil spaghetti, thus reaching even the onions on top (which will anyway be cooked by the steam).
You may want to set the heat in order to adjust evaporation. If most water evaporates, the remaining sauce will be thick and oily. Otherwise it will be watery. Delicious both ways. I prefer it in an intermediate state. If you set the heat high, you must check every now and then that there's enough water, or the meat will burn.
The meat is at the bottom of the onions, which you can't stir, so it's very difficult to reach the meat to see if it's done. But it doesn't really matter if it boils longer. Just leave on boil for 3 hours and you're happy.
Be careful with salt. The above suggestion about 2 spoonfuls concerns British fine salt. Other salts may be stronger. Greek salt, in particular, may be twice as strong and only one spoonful may be enough.
Makes 6 servings; however, one and a half servings per person are probably needed to satisfy your hunger if there is nothing else on your table. It's light and tasty; eat it for lunch or in the evening.
Wash the mushrooms and cut them in small pieces; also cut the onion in fine pieces. Put in a pan with about 4 cups of water and bring to boil. Remove foam if any. Add olive oil, salt and pepper, reduce heat, cover and let boil for 30 minutes. Meanwhile beat eggs until foamy, add lemon juice and beat until almost white, then add some soup (about half a cup) and beat again. Turn heat off, wait until soup stops boiling, add the egg-lemon sauce to the soup, stir well and leave for 10 minutes. Serve with pepper.
It is very easy to screw up the egg-lemon sauce. When you add the half cup of soup to the sauce, add it very slowly while you beat the sauce. Don't add sauce to the soup before boiling stops. The final result is judged as good if the soup has a uniform velvet texture; it is a failure if the egg-lemon sauce has become tiny but visible little pieces, or, worse, larger solid pieces.
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